College Admissions Decisions

College admissions decisions are already starting to come in for some students. Every senior looks forward to receiving their college acceptance letters. It is an exciting time and reassures that there is more ahead. Depending upon the schools where you are applying, it is possible that you will hear back quickly or you may be waiting until sometime in March to find out if you have been accepted. I do ask that as you begin receiving your acceptance or, sadly, even rejection letters, to please keep me informed about the decisions. For the vast majority of the colleges, the only way I know about your admissions decision is if you share the information with me.

Remember, the only way to receive an acceptance letter is to actually APPLY to the college! (Just a friendly little reminder for those of you who are still struggling to get your applications finished.)

Exam Schedule

I wanted to give all students and parents a summary of the semester exam schedule with some additional frequently asked questions...

Day One - Wednesday, December 17th:

8:40 - 10:35: 1st period exam

10:45 - 12:40: 4th period exam

12:40 - 1:20: Lunch

1:25 - 3:20: 7th period exam

Day Two - Thursday, December 18th:

8:40 - 10:35: 2nd period exam

10:45 - 12:40: 5th period exam

12:40 - 1:20: Lunch

1:25 - 3:20: 8th period exam

Day Three - Friday, December 19th:

8:40 - 10:35: 3rd period exam

10:45 - 12:40: 6th period exam

12:40 - 120: NO Lunch Provided! 

1:25 - 3:20: Make-Up Exams

A couple of questions that tend to come up at exam time...

Yes, you are REQUIRED and EXPECTED to be in all of your classes during an exam. (Even if you don't have an actual exam, the teachers are going to be working with you on projects, papers, or other learning related to their course.)

No, you do NOT need to be in school during your scheduled lunch period or during your Options or Prep periods. (Which means, for example, that if you have 3rd period prep and 6th period lunch that you do not have to come to school at all on the 19th.)

Yes, there will be two bus runs on Friday - so you can leave after your 6th period exam, but if you need to stay for a make-up exam period then there will be another bus run to take you home then too.

Hope that helps clarify and I hope your studying efforts are going well.

Snow Day!

I absolutely LOVE a snow day! There is something that feels extra magical about them. Perhaps they make me feel like a kid again, but I love the simple joys that having a snow day brings. The hope that we can have a bonus day off grows into the anticipation as the snow starts to fall and then the surprise and excitement as the news about school being cancelled is all fun. Add in the enjoyment of some hot chocolate, the beautiful look of the snow, the warmth of a fire and my Christmas tree lights, relaxing while reading, and counting shoveling snow as my exercise for the day - all of it equals a pretty great day as far as I am concerned!

Tomorrow as we return to school, we will also have a return to End of Course testing for some of our students. Please check your school email for information on who will be testing on which days. The Holiday & Grief workshop that was scheduled for today will move to later in the week. We will be sending out details to students who have expressed interest in participating. (If you feel like this is something that could be helpful for you this year, we still invite you to join us - please talk to your school counselor for more information.)

I hope you had a great snow day and used it to rest, relax and recharge... and I guess maybe to study too. Just 10 days of classes left before exams!

Study Strategies

Do you know how to study? I ask students that question a lot and, quite honestly, the most common response is "no." It really isn't a surprise though. The reality is that until high school gets hard enough that you hit the wall and it no longer comes easy to you, studying isn't something you typically have to worry about and spend a lot of time focusing on.

The challenging part of studying is that what works best for one person may not be what works best for someone else. And, even if you figure out what works best for you in one particular subject area, that doesn't mean this particular strategy will be most effective for a different subject.

The best news is that there are TONS of different ideas and strategies that you can use to develop a study strategy that works best for you! For what it is worth, think of learning to study like you think of learning to run. You already know some skills that have helped you to know how to study and to be successful - just like you already know how to run, but if you practice and really train at running, you can improve significantly and studying will work just the same. Keep working at your study strategies, practice and continue refining your technique until you find the perfect combination that works for you.

Freshmen, the upperclass LINK Leaders are focused on helping you prepare for your exams. On Wednesday during the PACK period you will meet with your LINK leaders from the first day to talk more about preparing for exams. Be sure to check your school email to find out where you are going to go to meet with your designated LINK leaders.

And for all students, if you are struggling to find strategies to try out, I encourage you to visit the WKHS Counselor website as their are lots of examples there. You can also work with the Academic Assistant's in the Teaching and Learning Center (Room 205) as they have a wealth of knowledge and helpful tips for study strategies that can help you in their particular subject areas as well as studying overall. And, last, but not least, you can also stop in and see me and I can help brainstorm ideas that you could try.

Winter End of Course Assessments

Let's talk about End of Course tests for a moment.  And no, I am not talking about your semester exams that count for grades in your actual classes.  The End of Course tests are those assessments required by the state of Ohio that all students must complete.  The tests are also how you will earn the various components that you need to graduate.

The winter testing window for the End of Course tests begins tomorrow and testing will continue through December 11th.  You will be taking these tests if you are currently in Government, if you took a tested class during the summer, if you took a tested class last school year but due to illness or other reasons you weren't able to complete the tests when the state testing window was open, if you need to try to improve your scores, or if you moved in from out of state and need to take the assessments.

All students are strongly encouraged to check your school email to look for information about End of Course tests.  If you need to complete a test then you will have received an email giving you information about what date you will complete your test and which room to go to for testing.

I know it is really hard to miss class time for the testing (especially when you have so few days of classes left in the semester), but remember, since these tests play a critical role in you earning the graduation requirements, you want and need to try to do your best on the tests when taking them.

Gratitude

As we enter into Thanksgiving break, it is natural that our minds are turning to what we are grateful for and we have had a lot of conversations about this lately as a department.

Today, we had the chance to help distribute full Thanksgiving meals to some of our Kilbourne families because of the generosity of the parishoners at Worthington Presbyterian Church. We are so thankful for the partnership that they have with us and their willingness to help brighten the holiday for many within WKHS. The counselors and administrators were lucky to be able to participate in this outreach effort.

As we talked about the things we are most grateful for, it was only natural that it turned not to things, but to people. Each of us identified our family, friends, coworkers, and students as being among the top of our gratitude list! We hope that you know that we truly are thankful for YOU and for the fact that you welcome us into your lives and allow us to walk alongside you in your high school journey.

Mrs. Himmel spoke about how grateful she is for her kids and how resilient they are. Mrs. Schnell built on that and shared how thankful she is for how her family shows up for each other, the way she and her husband parent together and work in tandem. Mrs. Mann and Mrs. Lord also expressed their gratitude for being able to watch their kids grow and blossom as they explore their own interests and take on new challenges.

Mrs. Mann was the first to identify something we all too often overlook - her health! She shared that she is grateful for her health because, in spite of some ailments, nothing has prevented her from living a fulfilling life. With so many stories within the Worthington community lately of people who are struggling with their health, this area of emphasis resonated with all of us. And Mrs. Schnell focused not only on her own health, but also that both of her kids are healthy and love to laugh and smile every day.

We are all thankful to work on a team together that trusts and respects one another. Who have become friends and not just colleagues and who support and encourage each other to achieve things we could never accomplish alone. A lot of my gratitude lately has been focused on my team and my students (past and present) who fill my life with so much joy. Plus, I am also grateful that I can bring Lexi to school every day and watch the way she is loved by so many students at WKHS.

And, don't get me wrong, as we talked about gratitude we did have lots of "fun" examples too... Girls trips, elastic in pants, hotel stays with butlers who draw baths, holiday lights, reading as an escape, snow days, chips and queso at Mexican restaurants, sweet baby snuggles, chocolate, and so many more.

I don't know what all will make it onto your list of things you are most thankful for this Thanksgiving, but we hope that your list includes both people and fun things that bring your life joy and meaning!

**Just a reminder, this post is also being shared on the NEW WKHS Counselor blog. This blog site will no longer be active beyond 2025 so you can transition to receive all blog posts emailed directly to you by subscribing to the new blog site.**

YouScience Career Fit

All WKHS students have had the opportunity to complete the YouScience assessment. This tool is an online series of 11 different "brain games" that help students be able to see their own personal aptitudes which are those natural strengths they have.

Recently, as I was meeting with some of the sophomores and we were talking about some of the information that you can see in YouScience we had some interesting conversations related to the Career Fit area of the resource. 

Within the Career Section, students have the option to look at careers which fit them best based on their interests. Interest obviously tend to change over time as I don't want to be the same thing I did when I was a little kid and, as an adult, I (like so many others) am not doing the same career that I initially went to college to pursue because my interests changed. 

Students can also research careers that fit them best based on those aptitudes of their own personal strengths. Interestingly, after puberty, your aptitudes are typically consistent and don't change the way your interests will.

Or students can look at careers based upon the Overall Fit. I think of this as the sweet spot in the middle because it allows students to look at the careers that fit them both in regards to their interests AND their aptitudes.

So what does this look like? Well, let's say I am really passionate about basketball. I love everything about basketball. As a result, my interests might say that I would be a great NBA player. However, if you looked at my aptitudes you'd realize that I lack all eye-hand coordination, stress out under pressure and don't want everyone watching me as I run up and down the court, and can't dribble or shoot to save my life. But, perhaps I do have an aptitude for helping others and a lot of my careers that align with my aptitudes are healthcare oriented. So then if you look at overall fit, a potential career suggestion might be an Athletic Trainer which combines the interests in basketball and sports in general with the healthcare aspects of helping people to find a job that could fit both my interests and my aptitudes.

There are lots of examples that students can identify that help to meet their interests and aptitudes once they know what their natural aptitudes actually are and how those show up in their life. Additionally, when planning for future high school classes, it is a great opportunity to try out and explore some of those potential career fields to see if they actually interest them before you get to college and spend a ton of money only to find out that isn't really the job for you.

If you haven't already completed the YouScience assessment, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is located as a Tile Option in your Hello ID menu of options. Select YouScience and then use the Google Single Sign-on Option with your wscloud account and you can explore the possible career fits for yourself.

As always, if you have any questions with accessing YouScience or understanding your results, please stop and see your school counselor because we are here to help you and we love to look at the results with you!

**Just a reminder, this post is also being shared on the NEW WKHS Counselor blog. This blog site will no longer be active beyond 2025 so you can transition to receive all blog posts emailed directly to you by subscribing to the new blog site.**